Honor versus Absolutism: Richelieu's Fight against Dueling

Abstract

FRAN?OIS DE MONTMORENCY, comte de Luxe et de Bouteville, young scion of one of France's leading families and the most notorious duelist in France, arrived secretly in Paris on May 10, 1627 in violation of a royal order banishing him from the capital of France. With him was his cousin, the Comte des Chapelles. Bouteville had come on purpose from the Spanish Netherlands to accept the challenge of the Marquis de Beuvron, who desired to avenge the Comte de Thorigny, recently slain by Bouteville on the field of honor. Next morning Bouteville sent word to Beuvron that he was ready to satisfy his obligations to him. Beuvron gave him a rendezvous for that evening at the Place Royale. When the two met, Beuvron suggested that they fight it out alone then and there. Bouteville refused: 1 want the sun to be a witness to my acts. Besides, I have made promises to two of my friends who want to join the party, and if I did not let them, they would demand satisfaction. The Comte des Chapelles is one and La Berthe the other. That is why we shall meet tomorrow in this same place about two or three in the afternoon. A Dieu, and don't forget to bring two friends. Beuvron went directly to his son-in-law, the Marquis de Bussy d'Amboise. Bussy had long been ill. He had had five attacks of fever in the last ten days and had been bled three times. He was very feeble. But Bussy had made Beuvron promise that if Bouteville and Beuvron should fight and Des Chapelles was a party to the match, then Bussy could meet Des Chapelles l'espee a la main. Beuvron expressed his regret that Bussy was too ill to take part. Pardonnez moy, Monsieur, his son-in-law replied, quan i'auroit la mort entre les dents, ie veux estre de ceste partie. On May 12, the six participants met at the Filles Dieu, and each side had a gentleman search its opponents for hidden arms. Then they drove in a carriage to the Place Royale, which was, since its completion under Henry IV, a commercial center and the most fashionable square in Paris. (It is today the secluded Places des Vosges.) Each took his man and fought with sword and dagger. Bouteville and Beuvron closed in to seize each other's sword and they grappled; whereupon they threw away their swords, and each raised his dagger without striking. Finally Bouteville said to Beuvron, Let us separate our friends, ours was a gallant fight, and each asked the other for his life. Bussy was carried off wounded and later died. Beuvron, Bouteville, and Des Chapelles fled. Such is the account given in the contemporary chronicle, the Mercurefrantois, of the most famous duel to take place in the time of Louis XIII.1 The following pages of the Mercure are filled with the sequel to the event. Beuvron succeeded in reaching England, but Bouteville and Des Chapelles were arrested while passing through Lorraine. Louis XIII ordered them to the Bastille to stand trial for violating royal edicts forbidding duels.2 The case posed a dilemma for the king and his leading adviser, Armand Jean du Plessis, cardinal de Richelieu. On the one hand was the social position of the two prisoners, especially of Bouteville. His father and uncles had loyally served Henry IV, while he himself had shown conspicuous bravery on four occasions during Louis XIII's struggles in France. The Prince de Conde and the Duc de Montmorency wrote letters to the king soliciting his mercy.3 On the other hand was the history of a royal struggle begun by Henry IV to suppress the custom of dueling-a struggle which Richelieu had recently been urging his master to pursue to a successful conclusion.